


House Hunters

by RegalMisfortune



Series: Suburban Empire [1]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: ??? - Freeform, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gen, Tags will be updated as I go along, The Ladies (chickens), but they still love each other regardless, decided to compile my drabbles into one fic instead of multiple, hanzo and genji act like typical siblings, inspired by watching too much hgtv whoops, meaning they get on each other's nerves, most chapters will be very short, this is mostly for writing practice
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-26
Updated: 2018-04-30
Packaged: 2019-04-28 01:44:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14438817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RegalMisfortune/pseuds/RegalMisfortune
Summary: Hanzo and Genji are in the market for a small house far away from Japan. This small house in the fringes of the suburbs catches both their attention- but for entirely different reasons.A series of drabbles about two brothers who travel halfway across the world from home, only to find a new one with themselves, their quirky neighbors, and inside their even quirkier house.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Haven't written anything for this fandom for a little while, so I decided to pick up this idea I had from when I was binge watching HGTV.

The house needed a lot of work.

The curb appeal was non-existent, with the flowerbeds overgrown with shrubs and weeds. The driveway was cracked, the front sidewalk was barely visible under the grass growing between the cracks, and the siding was ten years past its expiration date.

Hanzo could feel a tick forming along his brow as he scrutinized the place, noting that the gutters were in disrepair and would need replacing as well, adding to the growing list of fixes and replacements that was  getting quite large before even stepping one foot into the house.

Genji, on the other hand, saw none of that. Instead he was cooing over the old craftsmanship along the undersides of the roof and how “adorably rustic” the front door was with its peeling yellow paint.

“ _Isn’t this house adorable_?” the younger brother stated with a wide grin on his marred lips, continuously playing the poor realtor along in that he knew no English at all and speaking the entire time in Japanese. Hanzo wanted to criticize his brother’s choices, but seeing the first smile on Genji’s face since the incident that left him scarred and refusing to put down the hood of his jacket so that his ruined face was hidden in shadow most of the time, Hanzo could only relent with an unimpressed hum.

The realtor- a painted-up woman whose smile was false but professional all the same, happily went to unlock the front door, talking pointedly to Hanzo as the two brothers followed her up the creaking steps.

“The cheapest house in the area by far!” she exclaimed cheerfully, despite having to give the bottom of the door a quick shove with her foot to unstick it. “A beautiful old home indeed! Just needs a little TLC and it’ll be good as new!”

The hardwood floors were scratched. Hanzo suppressed the urge to wrinkle his nose at the stale air that filled the place. Empty and abandoned for some time. That brought on its own slew of problems. Possible leaks in the roof, old plumbing and electrical. The windows needed to be upgraded for efficiency, who knew what the boiler and furnace were like. Was there even AC in this place?

“Oh god,” the words slipped out of Hanzo as he froze in place, finally taking in with growing horror of the kitchen.

The tiles on the floor were the ugliest shade of yellow-green he had ever seen. The walls were covered in peeling wallpaper full of tacky Tuscan grapes and vines. The cupboards were painted a near burgundy in some false attempt to match the color of the grapes and had a whole plethora of different sizes as if it were a growth cycle from baby cabinets to adult and ready to harvest cabinets, and the counters were entirely non-existent.  

“ _Look at these cupboards!”_ Genji immediately jumped on with great fascination, opening up a peculiar tiny door counter-level.

“ _This entire room needs to be gutted.”_

Genji let out an overly-dramatic gasp, eyes wide with horror as he tried to block the tiny cabinet with his body as if Hanzo was going to physically go in and start tearing them down right then and there- much to the relator’s bemusement. “ _No it doesn’t! It just need a little paint-“_

_“The floor tiles are chartreuse, Genji!”_

_“A little sanding-“_

_“These cabinets are older than the two of us put together-“_

_“And look at this silly chandelier!”_

Hanzo sighed in defeat as Genji immediately drew himself to the most obnoxious crystal and brass light fixture in the section that would be a conjoined dining space. At least the space was big, and there was room for replacement appliances- Hanzo eyed the gas stove as if it were going to explode at any second.

The living room was spaceous enough, a small half-bath just to the left of the kitchen along the way which had _carpet_ of all things, and Hanzo knew instantly that he lost Genji in any attempt to convince him that this house wasn’t worth it, because his fool of a brother all but ran to the siding door, nearly slamming it open as he stepped out onto the pool deck.

The pool was green, but the realtor who was nattering in his ear explained that the lining was in perfect condition. The rest of the backyard was a bramble of overgrown bushes and some sort of vines that overgrew the fence line that separated their hard and their two neighbors on either side.

The chicken, on the other hand, was definitely _not_ part of the house.

Hanzo couldn’t stop himself as he pulled a face, looking down his nose as this walking ball of feathers as it pecked along the grassy edges. It let out a series of low _bwauk bwauk bwauk_ ’s before it disappeared into the hedges along the fence- possibly back into its own yard where it belonged.

Another repair necessary. At this rate, the cost of fixing the place will exceed the price of the house itself. Hanzo put his head down low enough to pinch the bridge of his nose as Genji came trapezing back, positively delighted.

“ _We can have a pool, Hanzo!”_

_“Hm.”_

_“And chickens!”_

_“The chickens are not ours,”_ Hanzo reminded plainly, but Genji was not listening as he turned to the realtor.

“We’re taking it!” he exclaimed in perfect English, nearly startling the relator into dropping her clipboard.

Hanzo was forever regretting letting Genji have the last say in purchasing their first home away from Japan. And they hadn’t even seen the rest of the house yet.


	2. Chapter 2

The repairs was costing a small fortune.

The inspector had said the roof needed to be redone. There was a small leak in the attic that had caused some of the wood to rot and was replaced, along with the entirety of the space needing insulation so that they wouldn’t be spending what little money they had left in heating or cooling the outdoors. The foundation was sound- a small relief in itself, as were the walls behind the worn down siding and the interior wiring and plumbing, despite their age. At least it wasn’t lead pipes, knob-and-tube wiring, and the walls caked in asbestos.

It was all a factor in haggling the price down. Being already very low, of course the sellers put up a fight, but Hanzo knew how to work a business adventure to his own advantage. He even offered to cover the closing costs in their favor if they dropped the price enough to cover the expense of repairing the roof. Simple. He already had a contractor lined up to fix the problem with the roof and in the attic, affordable but reliable.

The interior of the house, however, was another matter entirely, along with the overgrown landscaping. He had painstakingly crunched the numbers and looked up some plans for remodeling, but Genji immediately struck it down.

“This is going to be _our_ house!” he exclaimed. “We are going to put the work into it ourselves!”

Which, on one hand, would save them the cost of labor. On the other hand, it would result in them continuing to live in a hotel room as they struggled to set the house in livable order. Neither Hanzo nor Genji were carpenters and designers by any means, but he was sure they could figure it out along the way. Reading tutorials, watching videos and the directions on the back of tile cement. They had learned far harsher lessons in shorter times than remodeling the entire interior of a home by hand. It couldn’t be that hard.

Unfortunately, Genji was very difficult to work with.

“We are _not_ getting rid of these floors!” his brother said with firm stubbornness as he stood in the doorway of the kitchen for the first time since they bought the place, the roofers having finally finished their work and left them to do as they pleased without worry of one of them falling from the ceiling.

“These floors are _hideous_ , Genji!” Hanzo shot back through gritted teeth, setting the flooring samples down onto the plywood that was being used as a makeshift counter for the time being. “They need to be replaced.”

“I like them!” Genji retorted as if he had the last word in the matter. And despite how much Hanzo wanted to gripe more, he knew he was fighting a losing battle. He preferred a more modern look with a touch of old classic Japanese traditional. Genji was more… eclectic, as given pointed example in the way he was defending the chartreuse kitchen floor tiles.

“Fine,” Hanzo relented as Genji whooped. “But we are _not_ keeping that cabinet color.”

“Yes!”

“ _And_ I get to choose the counter.”

“Only if I get to pick out the wall color!”

“Asshole,” Hanzo muttered, but there was no heat to his words as a smile threatened to creep into the corners of his lips while Genji barked out a laugh. “At least pick out one of these tile samples for the bathroom. Best not let my effort go to waste.”

“Alright alright,” Genji grinned, unfolding his arms to give Hanzo a push away from the kitchen doorway. “Go back to crunching numbers and muttering about the work in the backyard like the old man you are!”

“We are going to have to replace the sliding door as well!” he called over his shoulder, just in time to see Genji flip him off before he disappeared back into the kitchen.

“He’s going to ask for help in ten minutes,” Hanzo told the chicken that was on the pool deck, pecking at a leaf that had escaped the branches of the large tree that shadowed over the pool. What fool had decided that a tree should be close enough to drop their leaves straight into the water should be slapped for his ignorance, but Hanzo knew Genji would not allow him to cut the tree down. The farm animal merely _bwauk_ ed at him and fluffed up its speckled feathers.

Hanzo sighed. He really needed to repair that fence.


	3. Chapter 3

Dew soaked into his pantlegs as Hanzo knelt on the soft grass, lips forming a thin line and brow scrunched together as he carefully plucked and trimmed the overgrown foliage of the backyard.

He had arrived at the house just as the sun was peeking out over the tree-line, wanting to get a head start on the project before it became too hot to stand being outdoors. He had yet to figure out where the chickens were coming in from, and was having difficulty picking out what were flowers worth saving and what were weeds bound to choke out the neglected landscaping.

Sweat was already trickling down his face and dampening his collar, the day already humid and only getting hotter as the sun began to peer over the fence and shrubberies. Hanzo sat back on his heels, wiping his face with a part of his shirt as he looked down at his work with an unimpressed frown. He barely had gotten a third of the way down the one side of the fence, the pile of weeds, clippings, and trash taking up far more room on the limited grass space than he had expected. He would need to gather it up and dispose of it before any of it ended up in the pool- especially since the constant water treatments were just starting to have an effect on the algae population.

A rustle of leaves and branches near the far corner of the fence line drew Hanzo’s attention, dropping the bottom of his shirt and eyebrows climbing to his hairline as _dozens_ of chickens came pouring out of the bushes, squawking and trilling and but certainly wasting no time as they ran across the yard, knowing exactly where they were going as they headed to the opposite side, scrambling under the prickly cedar bushes and thistle stalks.

Hanzo slowly rose to his feet as the last of the stragglers raced to catch up.

“You got to be kidding me,” he muttered quietly, following after them and to the newfound hole on the other side. He had been looking for one hole, not two. At this rate he might as well replace the entire fence just to keep what seemed to be a common exodus from one neighbor’s yard to the other through his own yard.

With a quiet grumble he knelt down, bending down to peer under the branches to see the broken gap in the wooden fence and the occasional down feather stuck in the woodgrain. It was a decent sized gap- someone’s dog could easily fit through it if they worked the board enough. At this rate he may as well replace the entire fence, just to make sure nothing ended up dead in the pool.

The sound of a glass door sliding open made Hanzo freeze, hearing the chickens _bwauk_ and talons clicking across wooden planks of the other neighbor’s porch.

“Well good mornin’ ladies,” a drawling voice seemed to echo in the morning stillness and over the heads of several dozen farm birds, deep and masculine as something rattled in a plastic bin. “I gotcha somethin’ good. Fresh handpicked blueberries- on the house for my favorite lassies.”

The chickens practically exploded in noise, Hanzo managing to see a few of them run by the hole in the fence with their berry snacks in their beaks, squawking and fleeing from the others as they attempted to chase after and steal their hard-earned reward. A low laugh tickled his ears, and Hanzo leaned in a bit closer enough to see the foot of the porch stairs just as a pair of leather cowboy boots settled down on the last step while the owner sat down further up and out of sight.

A click of a lighter was muted under the sound of eating chickens, but the smell of tobacco made Hanzo wrinkle his nose before almost getting his head stuck in a bush as a chicken suddenly stuck its head into the bushes curiously, jumping and squawking away to the neighbor’s chuckling amusement.

Fishing his head out of the bush without getting his hair tangled in the branches, Hanzo sat back on his heels and stared at the hidden hole in the fence, frowning in thought.

It seemed to be a daily occurrence for the chickens to migrate to one neighbor’s to the other. In fact, it seemed expected, enough so that the other would feed the invading flock expensive, fresh treats. The murmur of the man on the other side was too low now for him to hear, but the man seemed attached to the chickens. At least enough to expect them around to feed them.

Hanzo let out a sigh, standing up and brushing the dirt and clinging grass from his knees as he turned towards the pile of plant scraps. The hole in the fence was a minor fix on the long list of fixes and repairs. He could let it slide for now… at least until he and Genji fixed the house enough to actually live in it comfortably.

**Author's Note:**

> Please feel free to support me on [ko-fi!](https://ko-fi.com/regalmisfortune/)!


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